6 week old Ringneck

[Nutjob]

hey guys i got my IRN on wednesday and its now friday so its been 2 days now.

my question is the following, s/he likes to hide under my jacket and spend the whole day on my shoulder. should it be encouraged or not? i do take the bird out for feeding time and general roam on the bed fun time.

Please any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Lori~D]

Spending time with your new baby is great for both of you - however all day is not going to help you in the future with your new friend. My suggestion is to start teaching your baby to "play" by himself for short periods extending gradually to a few hours each day on a stand or in his cage or on it. Plenty of toys and good yummies. If your baby doesnt learn independance he will have problems when you do have to go do "human" things. You as the flock leader have to "teach" him to play. Otherwise he will develop problems like "screaming" for you and maybe even plucking out his feathers in stress. Being with a baby and loving him is great and important but balance of alone time and how to deal with it is in his best interest and will not hurt your bond but actually increase it.

[LovelySydney]

Spending time together is awesome and it shows definite progress as far as bonding and trust goes, but the bird also needs to be encouraged to be able to play on its own and be independent. My painted conure neko was a real velcro baby and still is but we are trying to keep him alone for some part of the day so he learns to be a LITTLE bit independent of mommy and daddy!!

[rewki]

From my personal experience with chicks that are not yet weaned, six weeks is young. You should keep your baby ringie in its cage but in a type of setting where it can snuggle in a small box filled with shavings for warmth especially at night since mama bird obviously is not around. During the day prior to regular feedings it is wise to play a bit and get the baby to know "you" but remember you will not be there 24/7. At times you may have to go out for extended periods of time therefore if your baby ringie is always snuggling which is natural at such a young age, it will be stressed out when you are away. Since it is young I would suggest covering the cage at 3/4 at night. Ringies tend to get up at the first sign of dawn and their calls call be ear deafening at times. Extremely high decible levels. Little bites or nibbles are the babies way of "tasting" you in order to validate recognition of you. Enjoy your little blessed Ringie, by the way what color did you acquire? I own blues and greens, 13 in all. Six of them were born in my aviary. This is my baby blue when it was 5.5 weeks old.

[Nutjob]

thanks for the replies, i will definitely take what you have said into consideration.
my only problem i think is the cute factor that you just wanna cuddle and hold and cherish something so precious.

But i do understand now.

Oh yeah i almost forgot Rewki i got a blue one like you have, will post pictures asap

[Nutjob]

[rewki]

A real cutie for sure. Remember at this stage not all feathers are in yet. He/she will be flapping wings at this stage and flying lets say a five foot distance. The cool thing about a webcam is you can click on the instant !! lol Contact me for any advice or help. All of by Ringnecks live in an outdoor aviary and are all fully flighted with no clipped wing or tail feathers.My baby blue was permitted to fly indoors for a while but his place is with the others.

[Nutjob]

today most of the day i have looked like am suffering from severe Dandruff but actually not lol Skye has been preening him/her self all day long getting those nasty feather skin things (have no idea what they are called) off. and it keeps my fid busy then all holy hell will break loose when skye starts flapping the wings.... silly bird LMAO scares me and the cats out of their mind. oh as far as cats go, 3 of us actually had an afternoon nap together.
bird on shoulder, cat creeped into my side and me baring the brunt lol

[rewki]

You must keep the cats away from the bird. What is falling off like dandfruff is actually keratin. It looks and feels scaly and waxy to the touch. This is a scleroprotein which nails and hair are formed from. This will pass, the preening is needed to facilitate proper feather growth. This is after all just a baby bird. Cats and IRNs do not go together.